


Heir

by LuckyPuffin



Category: Ranger's Apprentice - John Flanagan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kidnapping, Magic, Morgarath is a Horrible Father, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:02:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23442154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckyPuffin/pseuds/LuckyPuffin
Summary: No king can rule without an heir. Before retreating to the Mountains of Rain and Night, Morgarath takes an abandoned orphan with him to raise as his own. Fifteen years later, he's prepared to return. After some strange activities from the Kalkaras, Halt is sent on a reconnaissance mission on the Mountains of Rain and Night. There, he ends up gravely wounded when he finds himself unexpectedly saved by Morgarath's own heir: Will. AU!
Relationships: Cassandra | Evanlyn & Horace Altman, Cassandra | Evanlyn & Will Treaty, Gilan & Will Treaty, Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty, Horace Altman & Will Treaty, Morgarath & Will Treaty
Comments: 12
Kudos: 69





	1. A Mission

**Author's Note:**

> So like many others I'm stuck at home for the next few weeks. This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while and I thought I might as well try to write it so that it would stop bothering me. We'll see how it all turns out and how much I manage to write before school starts up again.
> 
> Quick note, this is obviously an AU and I will be taking some liberties with it. I've only read the main series (i.e. no Early Years stuff or anything beyond book 12) so any details from anything outside of that won't be in this fic. Additionally, I have no idea what the setting of the Mountains of Rain and Night is like (main series wasn't very descriptive with that) so I'm just gonna make it whatever I feel like, especially for plot convenience. Also Morgarath has an ancient castle and some human supporters/servants/slaves here, cuz I highly doubt that he could've survived fifteen years in the mountains with no shelter and no help beyond the Wargals. Also magic definitely exists here and will play some role in the story. The canon hints at magic, so I'm just going to emphasize on that here and make it more obvious. This fic starts at around the later half of the first book, so some major events (mainly the boar hunt) simply won't have happened with the absence of Will.

_Lord Lorriac felt his sword drop from his hands as he stood frozen, captured by the cruel, red eyes of the creatures in front of him. He thought he could see a glint of triumph in their monstrous faces, but the terror quickly taking over his mind swept that thought away. The world was melting away around him, until there was nothing on his mind but fear and horror for the beast._

_His heart began to pound against his chest, faster and faster until it physically hurt. He didn't know what these things were, but he was terrified of them. His terror built and built until he felt his breath stop, his lungs as locked and petrified as his mind and body were. It was as if the only part of him that could move was his racing heart, which he hadn't even known could beat as fast as it was beating now._

_He started getting dizzy. Was he going to die here? Like this? It seemed likely. He hadn't known that he could feel so scared of something, and his mind was in a state of near hysteria._

_"Stop! Stop! No more!" A shaking, breathless voice penetrated the haze of fear smothering Lord Lorriac's mind. The Kalkaras turned to the source, releasing him from their gaze. He gasped for air as he found himself suddenly able to breathe again. The beasts turned back to him and growled. From his peripheral vision he could see one of them raising a giant paw to strike him down in response. He couldn't even bring himself to care anymore, however, having no energy to defend himself at the moment._

_"I commanded you to stop!" The voice snapped, still shaking, though there was a definite steel in it. The beast froze. "You_ will _obey me. I am in charge of this mission and what I say goes." The beast grunted angrily, looking back at someone with confusion and fury._

_As the terror drained out of his mind and he slowly regained some of his senses, Lorriac lifted his head to look at his savior, whose voice had been surprisingly young. He felt his eyes widen at what he saw._

_With his breaths coming in short gasps to the point of nearly hyperventilating, he saw a young man- no, a_ child _\- glaring at the beasts. He was trembling so badly that Lorriac wasn't sure how he was even still standing. Distantly, he thought he could see the glistening of tears at the corners of the boy's eyes, threatening to fall._

_What the hell was going on? He wasn't even sure anymore. The kid couldn't be more than fifteen years old, and was grossly outmatched by the beasts, yet as he continued to shakily give out commands, the beasts shockingly listened to him and began to draw away from Lord Lorriac reluctantly. Throughout the entire process, the boy didn't even glance at him, seeming to be deliberately ignoring him._

_"This mission is over." He heard the kid say as he turned to leave with the beasts in tow. "You'll get your pay. I'll take the fall if necessary." Even as dazed as he was, Lorriac could hear the dread and terror in the kid's voice, see the uncertainty in every shaking step. Before he could find the courage to speak up and ask any questions of the boy, however, he had already disappeared into the woods, having left as quickly as he came._

* * *

As the Mountains of Rain and Night loomed over the horizon, ominously dark with the setting sun behind it, Will felt his heart pounding harder against his chest and a faint sense of nausea rolling over him. After his spectacular failure during his mission with the Kalkaras, he was dreading his return home. Nothing had gone as planned. The beasts had only gotten to their second assassination before he'd blown their cover and ruined _everything_. How could he dare to return?

At the thought of his father's inevitable reaction to his failure, Will could already feel the familiar weight of shame and a painful twist in his chest. In a vain attempt to relax, he took a deep breath.

He was very aware of the fact that this hadn't just been a simple mission. It had been a test meant for him to prove himself worthy of the title he'd been gifted with. And he'd failed it.

How could he have let that happen? How could he still claim to be an heir to anything? His father was going to _kill_ him for his incompetence.

At the moment, only the presence of the two monsters on either side of him was preventing him from turning around and finding a tall place he could jump off of. He _hated_ the Kalkaras. Had hated them the moment his father had hired them, and abhorred them when he'd been forced to look into their cruel, red eyes himself. Now, they served as the guards dragging him back to what felt like a prison.

 _Why did I accept this mission?_ Will wonders miserably. He'd so desperately wanted an adventure, a chance to see the world beyond the dreary mountains that were his home, that he hadn't considered that it could end up like this.

After all the preparation and lessons his father had given him, he'd thought that he would be ready for the mission and all the bloodshed that would inevitably come with assassinations. It shouldn't have even been difficult. All he'd needed to do was watch the Kalkaras to confirm if they'd been successful in their killings, and perhaps lend a helping hand whenever it was necessary. But nothing could've prepared him for the brutality of those two monsters.

_Blood dripping from dark claws. Terrified eyes, wide open in death. Torn human flesh and the sound of it being chewed and feasted upon. Cruel, red eyes._

Will tightened his grip on the reins of his horse as he started shaking at the resurfacing, unwanted memories he'd tried to bury just a few weeks ago. They burned in his mind, however, like a fresh wound that refused to close. He could feel a heavy tightness in his chest as his vision narrowed and his heartbeat pounded painfully against his ears.

 _Get it together._ He thinks to himself. But his body didn't feel like listening, and he could still hear the sound of the Kalkaras gnawing on human flesh, wet and sickening. _Just breathe. It's fine. All part of the mission. Why did I stop them? Why does it_ bother _me so much?_ As if to mock him, the sound of teeth scraping on bones then joined the chorus of sounds in his mind.

When his breath began to come in gasps, he finally stopped his horse abruptly to throw himself to the ground, knowing that he couldn't continue on like this. The world seemed to be warping around him as he couldn't get the damn _chewing_ _sound_ out of his mind.

Alone in the middle of a grass plain, he had nothing to lean on, and instead curled up on the dirt ground. Clawing at his head and covering his ears, he sobbed into the earth.

" _Make it stop. Please stop. I'm sorry._ " The chewing sound only continued to ring loudly in his ears, however, and he didn't even know why he bothered saying anything out loud. There was no one here to hear him anyway. No one besides the Kalkaras that is.

The two beasts had promptly stopped the moment he had, and were now watching him silently with those awful red eyes. Will sobbed harder into the ground, feeling well and truly alone as he continued to wonder why he was freaking out so much. There was nothing he could do about it, however, besides continuing to lie on the dirt ground as he waited for the memories to subside so that he could finally breathe again.

* * *

Halt had a pretty good idea why he'd been summoned to the Gathering Grounds by Crowley well before he arrived. With all the rumors that have been flying around recently, it was rather obvious what the meeting would be about. The Ranger sighed heavily.

He'd always known that this day was bound to eventually come. It would appear that Morgarath was finally prepared to return and try to take over the kingdom once more. Even Halt had to admit, however, that the most recent turn of events have been particularly strange.

It had all started approximately a week ago, when Lord Lorriac's report of surviving an attack from the mysterious monsters known as the Kalkaras had spread throughout the kingdom like wildfire. Immediately, most of the kingdom had unsurprisingly panicked.

Fiefs neighboring the site of the attack have begun to gather their men, bracing themselves for a confrontation against the beasts, while most of the common people have gone into hiding, cowering in their homes. Many have also been wondering if this was a sign of a war on the horizon. And yet amidst all this chaos, the details of Lord Lorriac's miraculous escape from the Kalkaras still managed to stand out as a source of great confusion.

According to Lorriac, he'd been out hunting when he'd been caught by the Kalkaras and their cruel, red glares, which should've been a flatout death sentence. However, just when he'd thought his heart was on the verge of stopping in sheer terror, he'd been apparently saved by a young man he described as appearing no more than fifteen years of age. The youth had reportedly been on the verge of tears and hyperventilating, but had somehow managed to command the beasts to stop their attack. Before Lorriac could fully recover and question him, however, the unidentified boy had then left with the Kalkaras as quickly as he'd appeared, leaving no traces behind, as even the local Ranger couldn't track them down.

Halt shook his head as he recalled the report. It didn't seem to make any sense, particularly anything relating to the young man, who Lorriac was claiming to be a mere teenager. If he hadn't read the report himself, he would've thought it was just a strange detail that had somehow gotten mixed in with the story as it was passed on by word of mouth. But it _was_ in the report, and it made the whole fiasco feel like a puzzle that the Ranger couldn't quite solve.

To put it bluntly, Lorriac had no business being alive at the moment. Morgarath had obviously sent the Kalkaras to assassinate him, perhaps so that he couldn't cause anymore trouble for him whenever he decided to start an inevitable second war with Araluen. How and why would anyone save him, let alone a mere boy? And who exactly was he?

Halt doubted that a random teenager had figured out a way to order around the Kalkaras and conveniently come to Lorriac's aid, so an association with Morgarath seemed to be the most likely answer to this conundrum. However, while the Ranger certainly didn't think that Morgarath was above employing child soldiers, why would a follower of Morgarath prevent an assassination? Why would Morgarath send a boy with the Kalkaras on an _assassination_ mission in the first place?

As he finally arrived at the Gathering Grounds, Halt continued to think over the situation. The thoughts dispelled, however, as he spotted Crowley sitting by a fire in the lightly forested meadow. Evidently, the Commandant had already set up camp.

"Halt! Good to see you." Crowley called to him with a grin as he saw him approaching. Halt could see the strain in his casual cheerfulness, however, and could tell that this was going to be a rather serious meeting.

"Crowley," Halt acknowledged grimly as he got off Abelard and moved to unpack himself.

As usual, they made lighthearted small talk as he worked. With the sun setting, they silently also agreed to prepare dinner and a nice pot of coffee first, before discussing any serious matters. Halt had a sinking feeling that they would be needing a full pot of coffee between the two of them tonight.

"So what's this all about?" The Ranger finally asked a couple hours later, having finished a pleasant meal, and now sipping a hot cup of coffee. "I assume you didn't order me to come all this way for a social call." Crowley raised an eyebrow.

"Getting right down to business are we? Well, I'm sure you've already guessed at the purpose of this meeting." He said dryly, taking a deep sip of coffee himself. He then reluctantly placed the cup down and turned to take out a file of papers from his bag. "Of course it's about the whole business with Lord Lorraic. I don't think there's a single soul in Araluen who hasn't heard about that mess yet." The Commandant said tiredly. Halt nodded meaningfully at that.

"The whole kingdom is in a state of hysteria. I do hope that you're not expecting me to somehow calm them all down. I know the saying is 'One Riot, One Ranger', but this is an entire kingdom we're dealing with. I think a couple more Rangers are warranted for that." Crowley shook his head.

"Don't you worry, Halt. It's nothing like that. Dealing with the public is more a job for the Diplomatic Corps. Beyond that, I would never dare to assign _you_ to a mission dealing with the public anyway. You aren't exactly known to be the friendliest or most approachable Ranger around, if you get my meaning." Halt glared at Crowley, who only smiled back innocently before putting on a more serious face. "All joking aside, this is a serious matter. Lord Lorriac's report, which I'm sure you've looked over, is rather alarming, and has given us a lot of mysteries for us to untangle on top of that. Nothing is for certain right now, and we quite frankly have no idea what Morgarath has up his sleeve. Additionally, we also have a couple of _Kalkaras_ wandering around the kingdom at the moment, planning to do who knows what, along with the mystery person traveling with them." Halt frowned.

"You want me to try and track them down then?" He asked skeptically. He was sure he could probably find the Kalkaras, but he wasn't nearly as certain that he would be able to take two of them down on his own. "As skilled as I may be, I might require a bit of reinforcement for that one as well." Crowley shook his head once more.

"Of course I'm not sending you after them on your own. That would be a suicide mission. No, actually, it may in fact not be necessary to track them down at all." Halt raised a questioning eyebrow at this. "Alright, let me just get to the point." Crowley sighed. "I've been keeping an eye out for those two monsters and the boy that's supposedly with them ever since I got the report. They've been illusive, but there's been vague, recent reports from the more remote areas of the kingdom that there's a strange group heading in the direction of the Mountains of Rain and Night. I'm willing to bet that's them."

"You think they're heading _back_ to the Mountains of Rain and Night?" Halt asked doubtfully. _That_ certainly didn't make any sense at all. Why would the Kalkaras just leave after letting one of their targets get away?

"I'm just as confused by it all as you are." Crowley said, seeing his friend's skepticism at the news. "And because of that, I think we're in desperate need of more information. We have so little on Morgarath, such as the state of his forces, what allies he has, what other monsters he's found and recruited in those blasted mountains, and what his general plans are. We don't even really know if he's planning for war, or if he's just testing the waters considering the botched assassination attempt. It's all very strange."

"You want me to gather more information then?" Halt tilted his head thoughtfully. Crowley was right. They definitely needed more information on Morgarath and the whole situation in general, though he couldn't quite imagine how he could get such information unless…

"Exactly. To be more specific, I need you to go to the Mountains of Rain and Night, infiltrate that ancient castle Morgarath has been hiding in, and gather as much information as you can safely get in a month's time. There's a good chance based on those reports I've just mentioned that the Kalkaras, and whoever was with them, will be there as well, so hopefully you'll be able to figure out what Morgarath's plan with them is while you're over there." Crowley handed a few of the papers from his file to Halt, who took them and began to quickly scan over them. "This is what little information we have on Morgarath at the moment. There's a copy of the castle's layout from decades ago in there as well. We also know he has a number of slaves, thugs, and some hired guards and servants all in the castle, in addition to the Wargals and his followers." Halt nodded, already formulating ideas on how he could get into the castle, and what kind of disguise would be best for this mission.

"With all that said, I know this is dangerous, and a lot to ask for you to do on your own." Crowley continued cautiously as he watched his friend read over the papers. "But I think we both know that we're in dire need of more information, and I can't think of anyone else who could pull this off better than you. Even so, if you think this is too much, you're free to decline, though I hope you seriously consider it."

"I'll do it." Halt said immediately. "I took a vow as a Ranger to do whatever I must for the good of the kingdom. I don't see how this mission should be an exception to that." Crowley frowned, even as he nodded in acceptance.

"Very well," The Commandant said slowly. "I just wanted to make sure you thought this whole thing through, and ensure that you think you could handle this mission before officially giving it to you. You know better than anyone how dangerous this particular mission will be. One slip up and you could end up dead, or worse captured by Morgarath. And you know he hates _you_ in particular, perhaps more than anyone else. You're practically his ultimate nemesis."

"All the more reason to go then." Halt said sardonically. When Crowley didn't look anymore pleased by this response, the Ranger raised an eyebrow. "You were the one who offered me this mission. Surely you weren't expecting or hoping that I would decline it." Crowley sighed.

"Of course not. Let's iron out some of the details of the mission then, since you're so sure about it." He said, shaking his head in resignation.

As they discussed, Halt's ease at accepting the mission continued to bother Crowley, however. It occurred to him that like most Rangers, Halt led a lonely and isolated life. It came with the job, and was as big a part of it as the danger. Many Rangers even purposefully avoided having too many attachments and dependents, as they knew how easily they could die at any given moment.

Even so, Halt in particular had no family to speak of, with only Crowley being his closest friend and brother in all but name. There was also Gilan, and his relationship with Pauline wasn't lost on the Commandant, but ultimately it seemed that Halt was a particularly lonely Ranger.

Crowley knew that this was in large part due to his past, considering what little he knew of it. Still, this meant that while most Rangers still had families to go back to and consider, Halt didn't even have anything close to that. This allowed him to completely focus on his job as a Ranger, but Crowley couldn't help but feel a sense of pity for his friend.

He couldn't imagine life without his family, and as much as he understood that one could prefer to be alone most of time, he also knew that even the most introverted of people needed others in their lives. He sometimes worried that Halt's life was too empty, too serious and dark even for a Ranger. He wondered how long Halt could really go on like this.

Ultimately, there was little Crowley could do for Halt beyond being a good friend, but the Commandant still found himself hoping that one day, Halt would have something holding him back from accepting ridiculously dangerous missions like this so quickly.

* * *

Long, ominous shadows were cast against the wall by the light of the setting sun. Footsteps echoed loudly against the stone corridors of his home, as he walked through the castle with a couple of guards guiding him onwards. Will kept his face carefully blank as he went, desperately trying to quell the panic trying to take a hold of him.

It had taken him longer than it should've to get home. This was in large part due to his meltdown a few days ago delaying his travels, but it was also in part due to the fact that he'd simply been reluctant to do so. Now, he finds himself regretting his procrastination as he approaches his father's throne room. Even his guards seem tense at the inevitable confrontation waiting ahead of them.

As they finally arrived, and the heavy doors to the throne room opened, Will kept his eyes firmly lowered to the ground. After a lifetime of doing it, studying his feet with intense focus had become a nervous habit of his, and if there was ever a time he was nervous, now would be it.

The dead silence his arrival was greeted with didn't do anything to calm his nerves. He knew his father was there, could sense him like a storm cloud looking down at him. Will bit his lip. Just as expected, his father was livid.

"My lord, the heir has returned." One of the castle guards announced. As if against his will, his feet then promptly walked forward until Will was close, but still a respectful distance away from the black throne his father was sitting upon. He quickly knelt down before him.

"Welcome home, Will." His father's icy greeting practically froze the very air in the room. Will felt a wave of shame and fear so strong that it made him nauseous.

"Hello father." He said in a small voice.

"I must say, I'm surprise. I hadn't expected to see you return quite so soon. Did the Kalkaras work faster than anticipated? It sure is impressive that they managed to take out all ten of their targets in the span of less than a month." Only the lessons that have been drilled into him throughout his life kept Will from trembling too noticeably.

_No heir of mine is permitted to show any fear._

"They didn't." He managed to admit quietly. "They only took out one of the targets before the mission had to be terminated."

"Oh? Care to elaborate on why?" His father evidently already knew exactly what had happened, but Will still struggled to admit it, fearing that voicing his failure would result in a harsher punishment. Deep down, however, he knew that it wouldn't make a difference.

"In a moment of weakness, I accidentally exposed the presence of the Kalkaras, and allowed one of the targets to get away." He eventually managed to get out quietly. "We were revealed to the entire kingdom after that, so we had to end the mission early. I apologize, my lord. It was completely my fault, and I'm willing to take full responsibility for it."

"You certainly will." His father said, sounding almost bored. "But do tell me, my _dear_ son, why did you allow such a horrible failure to occur in the first place? I thought I taught you better than that." Will honestly didn't know how to answer that question, as he'd been thinking it himself for the past few days now. What had possessed him to spare Lord Lorriac's life and end the mission?

_The stench of blood has practically sunken and imbedded itself into his nostrils. The Kalkaras' chewing is loud, made all the more horrific by the sight of a fresh corpse being violently torn apart. "Stop. Please stop…" He hears himself whisper, his voice and muffled sobbing mingling with the sounds of ripping, human flesh._

Will squeezes his eyes shut.

"I'm not sure, Father." He says quietly. "As I said, it was a moment of weakness." He'd intended to say that he regretted it, but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.

_Tell no lies, especially to me._

His father looked at him sadly. "I'm disappointed, Will. After all that I've given you, I thought that you were ready. Against my better judgment, I had trusted you with this mission. How do you expect to complete your duties as my heir like this? What use are you to anybody let alone our subjects? How do you expect anybody to ever trust you if you can't even complete the simplest of tasks?" Each question stung as much as a physical blow, and something inside him wanted to shrivel up in shame.

"I don't know, Father." Even in the silent throne room, Will's voice could barely be heard. There was a heavy pause as his father studied him for a while.

"I expect only the best from you, Will. And as you are right now, I really worry about you and the future." His father sighed. "Because of this, and in light of your failure to complete the mission, I have no choice but to increase your training. Perhaps some more tutoring from Lieutenant Foldar will help set you on the right path." Will's head snapped up at the verdict, and he stared up at his father in horror.

"With Foldar?" He asked in a small voice. "No, please Father. That won't be necessary. I promise I can be better. I'll practice and train as hard as I must to get better, just please don't-"

"Silence!" His father snapped before he could continue on. "What pathetic behavior is this? Are you seriously begging me like a common street dweller? _Lieutenant_ Foldar is one of the best teachers you have at your disposal, and I know I've taught you to treat your elders with more respect. I'm now _certain_ that you need some time with him to learn more discipline."

Will couldn't hold back from trembling as he looked into his father's dark eyes. He knew in that moment that there was no escaping this. His father looked down at him with pitiful disappointment, slowly shaking his head.

"And to think I was going to spare you from any further punishment. Given your conduct today, I'm afraid I'll also have to confine you to your rooms for the next few days whenever you aren't training. I don't know what's gotten into you, though it appears that the stresses of the outside world has caused you to lose your discipline, corrupting you to be no better than a filthy, Araluen whelp." Will hung his head, and didn't bother arguing any further. "I did warn you that this could happen before you went on this mission, my son. Perhaps now you'll listen to me more. Regardless of that, your punishment will begin immediately. Now leave before you disgrace us all anymore with your behavior."

"Yes, Father. I apologize once more for my failures." Will said, more out of habit than anything else. The words tasted like dust on his tongue.

Two guards promptly came forward, and he stood to follow them outside of the throne room. The doors slammed behind them loudly, the sound echoing around the stone walls surrounding them. Will almost flinched, as the silence of his father made that sound as loud and intimidating as any shout. With a harsh tug at his arms, the guards beckoned him in the direction of his room. Humiliation burned in Will's cheeks as they walked. He couldn't bring himself to directly look at the people he'd failed so badly.

Night was nearly upon them now, and the torches were lit throughout the halls, sparked to life by magic. Will and the guards traversed across the castle until they reached the entrance to the tallest tower, and began to climb up its winding stairs.

As he stumbled closer and closer to the top of the tower where his room was, a wave of dizziness gripped his head as nausea and shock broiled within his mind.

He's messed up and disappointed his father before. In fact he's done it a lot. In all those other times, however, all his father had ever done was give him the occasional, well-earned beating, a bit of extra work, and/or a couple of days with no food. Rarely had it ever gotten worse, and even in those occasions when he _really_ messed up, training with Foldar had never been used as a punishment.

_Everything I do is for your own good, Will._

He figured that his father probably didn't see training with Foldar as a punishment. Foldar was a good teacher after all. But still, the lieutenant had been one of Will's greatest fears up until recently, though he could never admit to that.

 _Why are you such an ungrateful brat?_ A voice in his mind hisses. _Get a hold of yourself. If you can show Father that you've regained your discipline and worthiness quickly, things will all go back to normal. You can probably even pretend that the mission with the Kalkaras had never happened. Going to the outside world was a mistake anyway._

As he arrived at his room, Will was shown inside before his own doors closed behind him. He heard a click as he was locked in from the outside. Then, he suddenly felt everything drain from him. The tension in his body, his shame, his fear for what was to come, and all the rest of the chaos in his mind all melted away.

He felt like death as he stumbled to his bed and face planted onto it. There would be time for him to process everything that had recently happened later. For the moment, all he wanted to do was stare up at the ceiling and try to relax and forget everything.

Silence pressed down on him from every direction, however, as he laid there until nightfall. In that time, he took in his circular room with its five glass-covered windows spread equally around the walls, letting in the moonlight as it rose. He thought he should probably pull the curtains over the windows soon and get some sleep, but he was strangely too uncomfortable at the moment to do so.

Giving up on relaxing, Will eventually got up and walked over to one of the tall windows. He perched on the window sill and looked out into the gray woods of the rocky mountains outside. Tiredly, he leaned against the window, his cheeks pressed against cool glass. Years of doing this gave him certainty that the glass would hold. The view might've been somewhat beautiful if he hadn't been staring at it for most of his life.

Will sighed, feeling a heavy weight hanging over him somehow. He was back home, back to the one place he'd always found comfort in, and yet he felt no joy nor comfort now. _What's wrong with me?_

Even when the beatings had hurt too badly, or his heart had ached a bit too much, he'd always felt safe here. What had changed? All he could feel at the moment was the cold stone he was sitting on and surrounded by. All he could see were the plain gray walls, the bare room, and the dull, lifeless view outside of miles of forbidding mountains. All he could hear was a silence that sounded louder than it had ever been before.

His breathing quickened. Somewhere in his mind, he knew exactly why he was feeling this way. But he didn't want to think about it, wanted to pretend it had never happened, wished that he'd never seen it. It was imprinted in his mind, however, and the memories came without invitation.

Just a single night at an "inn" as it was called, and his own room was ruined for him now.

He could still feel the wooden boards and soft carpet beneath his bare feet, smell the scent of food cooking in the kitchen below him, hear the sounds of laughter and music from the patrons and musicians of the inn, and see the cozy room he'd been given. In his mind's eye, he remembered the sight of flowers by a window looking over a cheerful, crowded street. He could still imagine the colorful blankets spread on a small bed, and the care, love, and detail that had been poured into the decoration and setup of the room.

Will had of course heard of inns before, mainly in the stories he liked to read, but had never gone to one himself until his mission with the Kalkaras made it a necessity. It had gone beyond his wildest expectations, and had opened his eyes significantly to what he'd been missing out on all his life. This lesson was only further driven home now as he found himself in his own room, which was an isolated, plain, and cold prison in comparison to the inn.

Why didn't he have any of that warmth here in his own home? Why was he always surrounded by silence, his only comfort being that of being alone in this bare, lifeless room? Why did the children playing out in the streets of an Araluen village receive more affection from their parents than he did?

_Because I don't deserve it. I haven't earned it. I've failed, failed, and failed again. How could I dare consider myself worthy of any of that? All I've been is a burden here. All I do is take and take. What good am I? I should feel lucky that Father still even bothers with me. Such things would be a waste on me. Burden. Failure. Waste of space. Useless, useless, useless..._

But still he wanted it. More than anything, he wanted a life of warmth. Maybe his father hadn't wanted to give him any further punishment earlier because he'd already been punished by the mission itself. He'd been punished with the knowledge of what he's been missing out on all his life, and he knew that he was a long way from deserving any of it.

He vaguely wanted to cry, but no tears would come. _There's nothing you have any right to cry over. Stop being a baby, Will._

The night crawled by slowly as Will continued to lean against the window, letting the cold numb his cheeks and seep into his body, hoping that it would stick and be a balm for the painful memories of what he could never deserve. Eventually, he fell asleep in the arms of the silent, cold night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well wasn't that a blast? I actually had a lot of fun writing this, though it did end up longer than I thought it would be. I hope parts of this didn't come off as melodramatic or cheesy, though I am a total sap so who knows? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, as well as any questions, so feel free to leave a comment! They're very motivating for me to write another chapter ;) I actually plan to use this fic to help me practice and improve my rusty writing skills, so I would actually love any and all criticism.
> 
> The next chapter should be out maybe sometime this week, at least by next week, depending on how quickly I get my online school work done so that I could actually have time to write it. Stay healthy people and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!


	2. A Strange Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick notes for this chapter: While writing this, I had to consider what kind of a parent Morgarath would make. Obviously not a good one, but it occurred to me that he probably wouldn't be too physically abusive at least, considering that he chose to have a kid to raise as his heir. But emotionally abusive and manipulative? Definitely. That said, my twisted, sick mind decided Will needed to suffer a bit more for some reason, and that's where Foldar comes in, as you will see in this chapter...

As he marched up the Mountains of Rain and Night with a group of Morgarath's men, Halt couldn't help but marvel at how easy it had been to infiltrate the ex-baron's forces. The men that had "recruited" him all seemed to be a bit on the dim side, not even questioning him before taking him into their group, though he supposed Morgarath wasn't exactly in a position to be very picky about who worked for him.

Still, all Halt had done was leave Abelard and some of his more notable Ranger accessories, such as his cloak and knives, behind at a nearby remote village, before he pretended to be a wayward thief wandering around the base of the Mountains of Rain and Night. From there, it had only taken a few days before he encountered some of Morgarath's hired bandits who had quickly agreed to take him to join their forces. With his current "disguise", the Ranger was even allowed to keep his bow and arrows with him.

So far, things were going smoothly, though Halt knew that this wasn't likely to last. With that in mind, he resolved to already begin gathering some information.

"So what's it like working for the Black Lord?" He asked casually as they stumbled up the rocky slopes of a mountain, adopting an uncharacteristically arrogant tone in an effort to fit in with his current company.

"Not as exciting as you might be expecting, I can tell you that much for sure. Honestly, it gets rather dull after you get used to it, though I suppose it pays well." Someone beside him replied, spit flying from his mouth as he spoke. Halt held back a grimace as he turned to see a ragged looking man with three of his teeth noticeably missing and a balding head. The man grunted as he struggled to climb up a particularly precarious section of the mountain they were climbing. "I must admit, though the bastard has some insane jobs he demands us to do every once in a while. Can't disobey him or refuse a job neither. That'd be askin' for a flogging." All the men within earshot shuddered at the words.

"I can attest to that." A bearded, broad man with a crooked nose said. "Old buddy of mine tried it and almost got his entire back beaten off of him. Didn't survive long after the flogging either." Halt paused and tilted his head at him.

"Really? And you still work for Morgarath after he killed your friend?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. The man shrugged.

"Don't know if you know this, buddy, but no one's allowed to leave the Black Lord's services after entering it. You can't just come and go as you please. Besides, Morgarath pays us well and offers us a roof over our heads in return for our services- a _castle_ to be more specific- so you kind of have to learn to just accept his eccentricities."

"I see," Halt said neutrally. _That's going to be a problem. Going to need an escape plan then._ He thinks, sighing internally. "I was also wondering, though, what kind of jobs does he usually give you lot then if the pay is so good?"

"A lot of spying, sometimes stealing a document, delivering a message, or killing a minor bug. Nothing you haven't done before I'm sure." The gap-toothed man said, eyeing his giant longbow. "That sure is an impressive bow you got there. I haven't seen one so nice up close in years. I'm afraid you might have to eventually give it up though." Halt tensed at that.

"Why's that?" He asked as casually as he could.

"The Black Lord doesn't like any of us using longbows unless it's absolutely necessary or for something really important. Reminds him of a certain group of sneaking spies if you get what I mean."

"Can't say I blame him." The bearded man said with a scowl. "Those blasted Rangers are always getting in the way of things, even while they're slinking around like a bunch of cowards."

"Oh, tell me about it," Halt said sardonically. "What's even more frustrating about them is how they can be anywhere at any time, hiding in plain sight."

* * *

Will nibbled at a breakfast of bread and cheese as he sat on his bed and stared out the window at the rising sun. He'd cocooned himself in his blankets this morning when he'd woken up freezing cold, still sitting by the window. Now, some warmth was finally returning to his body, though he still felt internally numb.

Whatever pain or sadness he'd been feeling last night was gone by now, or at least successfully suppressed. That should've been good news, but Will was having a hard time summoning any emotion at the moment. It was as if the cold night really had numbed him to the core. The food in his mouth was flavorless as he chewed it slowly.

It didn't take long before there was an inevitable knock on his door. Will didn't bother answering it. He couldn't open the door, locked in as he was, so he didn't see the point in doing so. Besides, he had a pretty good idea what was about to happen, and he wasn't looking forward to it.

A few seconds passed before the door was unlocked with a click, and the familiar, hideous mug of a Wargal peeked in from outside. Will recognized him as one of the higher ranking beasts, and one of the few that had managed to learn the basics of human speech. He tensed under his blankets. Even after growing up with them all his life, Will still felt a thrill of fear and discomfort around the Wargals, though he'd learned to hide it well.

"Time for training." The Wargal lieutenant grunted in the flat, unsettling voice possessed by all of his kind.

"I'll be there shortly." He said, wanting to delay his meeting with Foldar for as long as possible, but also not wanting to be too obvious about it.

"No, _now_." The Wargal's eyes narrowed in warning, as if he could see right through him. Will pursed his lips, and nodded before quickly scarfing down the rest of his breakfast in a couple of bites. He then stood to follow the Wargal down his tower.

He found himself staring at his feet again as he made his way down the stairs, dreading meeting with Foldar again. The lieutenant had always hated him, though Will couldn't quite figure out why even to this day.

Walking through the corridors of the castle, his heart began to pound heavily against his chest as he wondered what Foldar had in store for him today. He didn't feel ready to face him at the moment. He never was, but today he felt particularly vulnerable, with his recent experiences still fresh on his mind.

After a couple minutes, they arrived at the armory where he was told to pick up a wooden practice sword for himself. Will strode in and grabbed a random one from the rack without even looking or picking through any of them, knowing that there wasn't a single sword in that entire armory that would feel right for him anyway. As expected, the weapon was a heavy, unbalanced burden in his hands.

_Too small, too weak, even for a practice sword._

After he came out of the armory, the Wargal directed Will to the castle courtyard, where he was told that Foldar would be waiting for him. He supposed that was one thing he could be thankful for. Courtyard practices usually didn't get too rough.

Still, Will took his time getting there, and was cautious as he went outside, peeking his head out the door slowly before stepping into the stone-covered courtyard.

Like the rest of the Mountains of Rain and Night, the entire area was a gray and somber place. It had a ground of carved stone, the occasional, drooping tree on the side for decoration, and a rectangular patch of dead grass at the very center that was often used by the guards and other residents of the castle to train in. As dusty and dry as it was, the soft, dirt ground of the center area was preferable to the stone covering the rest of the courtyard. It was next to this rectangular patch that Will found Foldar standing in, waiting for him.

As usual, his father's senior lieutenant was dressed entirely in black. Dark eyes immediately turned and spotted him as he approached. Will suppressed a shiver as he avoided eye contact with the almost reaper-like figure.

"Welcome home, Will." Foldar called to him, his face deceptively neutral. "I'm afraid I can't say that I'm surprised to see you back so soon. You always were a pathetic whelp. Now you've just proven it to everyone else." Will kept his head bowed as he finally stopped about a meter away from the man. A cold breeze brushed past them, and its whisper almost sounded like a warning to the boy.

"Hello, Foldar." He said, unable to completely disguise the misery in his voice. Foldar's eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me?" He asked softly. "How did you just address me?" Will stiffened.

"Hello, sir." He amended. "I apologize, the stresses of the past few days-"

"No need for any explanation." Foldar cut him off smoothly. "Your father has already told me everything. It appears that you've forgotten your discipline. No need to fret. That won't be much of a problem for much longer. After all, that's why you're here now, and we have all day these next few weeks for you to relearn your place in this castle." The last sentence was spoken with what almost sounded like dark glee, and Will felt another shiver go down his spine. Then Foldar smiled at him, and all the color drained from his face.

"Sir, please…" The plea sounded pathetic even to his own ears, but Will was truly scared of what was to come. His words were in vain, however, and he knew it as Foldar soundly ignored him.

"Let's start with sword practice." Without warning, the lieutenant suddenly surged forward, his sword slithering out from its scabbard in a quick motion.

Will's eyes widened, and he tried to lift his sword to block the blow, but he already knew that he was outmatched with a severe disadvantage. Foldar's steel sword sunk into his wooden one, the blow rattling and nearly numbing his arms. For a vital few seconds, Foldar struggled to free his sword, and Will quickly realized that the lieutenant's sword was stuck in his now. Without thinking, he tried for a counterattack. Yanking his sword to the side, he pulled Foldar off balance, before he got his sword free and went for a side cut.

Caught by surprise, Foldar was barely able to block the blow. As his mind caught up with his actions, Will felt a surge of horror as his practice sword was easily deflected. Foldar's eyes darkened and he struck at Will again, who stumbled back at the force of the attack. Before the boy could recover or regain his balance, Foldar executed another blow at him.

A burst of pain exploded in Will's sword arm, and he yelped as he felt Foldar's sword slice through his sleeves and across his skin. His wooden sword clattered to the ground, and Will soon joined it as Foldar then kicked him down. Dirt and dust flew up around him as he landed hard on his back.

His vision swam, more with shock than pain. When his eyes came back into focus, he saw Foldar standing over him, eyes narrowed as he pointed his sword at his throat.

 _What the hell just happened?_ His mind wondered hysterically. _Why did I do that? Why did I try to attack him back? Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

"That certainly is new." Foldar said as his heavy breathing began to slow down. "At least the outside world has given you some spirit, it seems. I do wonder what you saw out there to make you attack like that. You've certainly never done anything like it before."

Slowly, almost reluctantly, the lieutenant then lowered his sword and sheathed it once more. He went over to a wooden practice sword a few meters that Will hadn't noticed before, and picked it up. "Now get up. It's time for your real practice to begin."

Will felt something stirring in his mind at the words. His blood was hot as it ran down his skin and soaked his shirt. He glanced at it now, noticing only then that his other arm had been clutching at his admittedly shallow wound. Withdrawing his hands, however, he stared at the blood stained on his trembling palms.

The red on his hands, the red of his own blood filled his vision, and swept the rest of the world with the same color. His head pounded with long suppressed memories.

* * *

" _Will, meet Lieutenant Foldar," Father was in a good mood today. Despite the knot of anticipation in his stomach, Will couldn't help but smile at that fact._

_Shyly, he poked his head out from behind his father's legs, his small, chubby hands clutching at the man's clothes. His eyes were wide and curious. Father usually never introduced him to other people. It wasn't as if they ever received many visitors after all, and even when they did, he was usually locked away in his room. The thin, dark man before him, however, unsettled him for some reason, and he had to suppress a frown._

" _He's been out doing missions for us for the past few years, but he's back now. I consider him my right hand man, and he's served us well. Now, he's come to stay with us permanently. It is my hope that you will grow up to be like him." His father said with a hint of pride. Will couldn't help but feel a flash of jealousy that he quickly extinguished as he nodded dutifully._

" _Yes Father, I'll be sure to make you proud." He said softly._

_The young man before them indeed reminded Will of his father in many ways. His dark clothes and eyes were the most obvious similarities between them, but Will also saw the strength in how he stood and the air of cold confidence he had. No wonder Father liked him so much._

" _So this is your beloved heir?" Foldar asked, looking at him with an expression that made him want to go back into hiding behind his father's legs completely._

" _I suppose you can say that." Father sighed, sounding noticeably weary. "He still has much to learn, though, which is why I'm asking you to help train and educate him, especially with his fighting skills. You're a master swordsman, after all, and he'll need to be able to wield a sword if he ever hopes to rule a kingdom."_

" _Of course, my lord. Your wish is my command." Foldar replied, bowing gracefully. "When do you want me to start?"_

" _This afternoon, if that would be at all possible. I know this is short notice, but I want to leave to investigate some new potential allies today, so I want you to be in charge of him until I get back. Besides, you'll have your work cut out for you with him." Father looked back at him with an irritated expression. Will shrunk back, his face burning with shame. "The boy's too soft, too weak right now. The sooner you beat that out of him the better."_

* * *

" _Do you have to go?" Will asked in a small voice as Father led him to the courtyard that afternoon._

" _Yes, Will." The man replied, a warning in his tone. "And don't use that pathetic attitude with me. Begging is unbecoming behavior for an heir such as yourself." Will bit his lip._

Don't go. Foldar's scary. I don't want to train with him. I'll miss you.

_Though his thoughts and true feelings remained unspoken, Father seemed to see right through him, just as he usually did. He sighed in exasperation._

" _This us for your own good, Will. What use or worth will you have like you are now? After all that I've done for you, I expect you to accept my decisions without question. With that said, while I'm gone, Foldar is in charge, so I also expect you to treat him with the same respect and obedience you owe to me. Understood?" Will nodded slowly._

" _Alright, Father." He said, his eyes on the ground, studying his feet. It was a technique he'd discovered a few months back that helped calm his nerves. A few moments later they stepped out into the courtyard._

_It was a sunny day, the type of day Will loved to spend basking under the sun by one of the windows of his room, doing nothing in particular. Maybe if he was good with Foldar, he'd still be able to do that today._

_His father left quickly after dropping him off by Foldar's side without much ceremony or even a farewell. Will watched the dark, retreating figure growing smaller and smaller into the distance with wide, watery eyes. With the absence of his father, he felt exposed and vulnerable. Father never said goodbye, and he wished that for just once, he would see fit to turn around to do so. Today wasn't that day, however._

_When his father fully disappeared from sight, Foldar spoke up, and Will had to take his mind off his aching disappointment at his father's apathy._

" _Alright boy, your father ordered me to start your lessons as soon as possible. You have no experience with sword fighting, correct?" Will turned, and looked up at his father's right hand man, nodding hesitantly._

" _I'm sorry Foldar, but I promise I wanna learn and I'll try my best to do so." He chirped, a shaky grin on his face. The man was really intimidating, even more so than his father, but he trusted that there had to be a good reason that he'd been left in his company, so he tried to not appear too nervous._

_Foldar scoffed as he saw his expression, before he went over to the patch of grass that Will had always seen the castle guards training in. He trotted after the man. Soon, he then spotted two wooden practice swords on the ground beside the patch of grass._

_Were they starting already? He didn't feel very ready for this. Before he could worry about it for too long, however, Foldar was already tossing the smaller of the two practice swords at him. Will instinctively stumbled over his own feet to catch it. He fumbled with it for a few moments before finally getting a firm hold on the wooden sword._

_Gripping it by the hilt with two tiny fists, he looked at Foldar with cautious anticipation, waiting for any sort of comment or instruction. When he got no response, he hesitantly stepped into the training area. The sword was heavy in his hands._

_Foldar rolled his eyes, sighing heavily. "Right, let's begin then."_

" _Am I holding the sword right, Foldar?" Will asked, very aware of how his sword kept swaying from side to side as he struggled to keep holding it up. "It feels a little heavy…"_

_Foldar's eyes narrowed as he strode over to Will, who watched as he stopped less than a meter away, frozen in place with uncertainty. Then, without warning, Foldar's sword came down on Will's head with an alarming force. There was a sickening crack in the courtyard, and Will shrieked as his world burst into white._

_His sword clattered onto the ground as he clutched his head with both hands and went on his knees. The world was spinning violently, and the spot where Foldar had struck him ached with an alarming intensity, the pain seeming to dig into his very skull._

" _That was pathetic." Foldar said, his posh, smooth voice serving as a sharp contrast to his sudden act of violence._

" _Why did you hit me?" Will asked, a bit defensive as he struggled to gather his wits. "Did I do something wrong? That hurt!" There was a dangerous glint that entered Foldar's eyes then, and Will couldn't help but shrink back away from him instinctively._

" _First and foremost, I never want to hear my name on your worthless tongue again. From now on, you shall only address me as 'sir' or 'my lord'. Understand?" Will nodded hurriedly, heart hammering wildly against his ribcage. He could practically feel the murderous intent rolling off of Foldar in tidal waves. "Secondly, I hit you because that's the whole_ point _of your lesson today. You see, before you can even dream of wielding a sword, you must learn about strength, something you're clearly lacking at the moment. At this point, only pain can teach you about true strength by showing you the full extent of your weakness. Besides, after how much of an embarrassment you've been to your 'father', you deserve a punishment, don't you agree?"_

_Will trembled, not sure how to process the words he was hearing. Something sounded wrong about them, yet Foldar had spoken them with such confidence and had sounded so logical. He felt like there was something he wasn't getting. His mind so scattered that all he could do was shake his head helplessly as he struggled to come up with a response. Foldar grinned widely, his mouth revealing too many teeth._

" _I see that you don't understand your own weakness yet then. Don't worry Will, that's what I'm here for." He raised his practice sword again and Will instinctively scrambled to grab his own, but it was all in vain. "Let's continue our lesson."_

" _No! Please, I'm sorry-" Will whimpered, his wooden sword shaking way too much in his grasp to be of any use. Foldar ignored him as he went on the attack once more._

_That's when the beating began._

* * *

_Hours passed by. Eventually, Foldar finally stopped. Will was trembling violently and sobbing quietly into the ground by then. He wasn't sure if it was from pain or relief._

_With the pain from the blows gone, he quickly began to feel his entire body aching all the way to his bones. Foldar leaned down next to him then, grabbing his chin and forcing him to meet his eyes once more._

" _Look how pathetic you are." He said, shaking his head in disgust. "So weak you can't even defend yourself. Have you learned your lesson yet? Do you understand?"_

" _Yes… sir…" He said, his entire body jerking with sobs and hiccups as he did. And he really did. He'd never felt so weak before in his entire, young life._

Embarrassing. Weak. Nothing.

" _I suppose that's good. Still, I don't see what Lord Morgarath sees in you." Foldar's grip on Will's face tightened to an almost painful degree. "Why are_ you _his heir? What makes_ you _more worthy than I am to be his heir, to inherit his legacy?" Will tried to shake his head._

" _I don't know... I'm sorry." He whimpered. Foldar was right. He was so much stronger, so like his father, so much better than Will in every way. His aching head flopped onto the ground as Foldar finally released him, wiping his hand on his shirt in disgust._

" _It seems like you can't handle anymore lessons today. We'll resume this tomorrow, bright and early in the morning, right at sunrise. Don't be late." The man stood then, turning to leave the courtyard._

_Will, however, remained on the ground for a long while after, staring up at the blue sky. His body was still aching deeply, and he knew he would wake up tomorrow with his entire body black and blue from today's lesson. The knowledge of how useless he was, how much of a burden he was to everyone around him weighed on his mind heavily and ate away at him. But more than anything, he missed Father._

_The lessons would indeed continue into the next day, the next months, and the many years afterwards, all the way through to his teenage years._

_Will had been five years old when he first met Foldar._

* * *

The memories from his early childhood were so vivid, Will felt like he'd just lived them even as he stared at his bloody hand, the red slowly filling his vision. He could feel every breath he took, heavy yet shallow at the same time. He felt like a child again. And despite knowing that he was an embarrassment to his father, despite knowing that he deserved this punishment, especially after having failed in his mission, he also felt that he couldn't simply take another one of Foldar's lessons today. A tidal wave of rage swept over him.

It was a feeling that flooded his chest, seeping into his heart and spreading through his veins. It was a red, boiling rage that demanded to be unleashed, a poison in his mind, and a cure for the pain that had accumulated after a decade's worth of earned beatings and lessons.

Maybe it was because he was still shaken from his trip to the outside world, but he wanted to unleash it all for once.

Despite ten years of being under Foldar's tutelage, Will still wasn't very good at wielding a sword. Still, he grabbed the unbalanced, wooden weapon now, gripping it firmly as if trying to force it to work with him. Then, without a single word, he lunged at Foldar, his sword already raised. Not expecting the sudden move, Foldar didn't have any time to react

He was much shorter than the man, but Will went for his head anyway. There was a sickening crack in the courtyard as he slammed his wooden practice sword into the side of Foldar's head, knocking him off balance. Without a pause, he then kicked at the man as he staggered sideways, and then continued to hit him with his sword.

He beat him viciously and with all his strength, determined to keep going until his wooden sword _broke_ over the man's head. There was no technique to his attacks, and he was using the practice sword more like a staff or a club than a sword at the moment, but shock and the blow to his head kept Foldar stunned for a while, allowing Will to land several heavy hits on him.

It wasn't to last, however, as Foldar then eventually regained his sense and drew his own sword out again. Will's practice sword was quickly knocked out of his hands, and he wanted to scream in frustration at how it seemed nothing had changed in the last ten years.

A moment later, he found a sword pointed as his neck and a very murderous looking Foldar glaring at him. Will was forced to stand down, though his own rage had not faltered in the slightest.

" _What_ was that?" Folder hissed, several dark bruises already visible on his usually pale skin. "I hope you have a good explanation for your actions just now. You're lucky I haven't slit your throat-"

"Go ahead!" Will snapped venomously. "I'd like to see you try. Come on, I mean it! Go ahead and slit my throat, beat me up again, or better yet keep trying to teach your godforsaken lesson!" He was shouting by the end of it. "What kind of lesson was _that_ supposed to be, _sir_? To attack me with no warning and draw blood! Whatever it was I think I've clearly learned it!"

Foldar looked shocked, an expression Will had never seen on the man's face before, and he felt a moment of satisfaction to have elicited such a reaction from him. He'd never yelled at him like that before, had never spoken like that to anybody in his entire life in general for that matter.

For a moment, they stood in tense silence.

"So this is how you're going to be?" Foldar then asked quietly, putting his sword back into its scabbard. "Very well then. I see that you're having an issue that runs far deeper than a lack of discipline. I'm afraid I'll have to talk to your father about this, for you may well be beyond my help at this point." At these words, Will couldn't help, but falter.

"What do you even have to report to him? I didn't do anything wrong." He said, trying to bluster his way out. "I acted just like you've taught me to. We were practicing sword fighting. Actually, I'd imagine that he'd be rather proud." Foldar grinned.

"You really think that, don't you? Think you're so strong now? All grown up?" The man laughed, seeming truly amused. "How naive. This will certainly make things even more interesting."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded. Internally, Will was clawing at his anger and rage-induced courage even as they rapidly began to drain away from him. Fear was quickly replacing the void they left behind.

"You really think your father will side with _you_ in this? After the mission you've literally just failed? Do you really think he doesn't know the nature of your lessons?" Foldar sneered. "You've recently just failed to obey your orders on a major, important mission, in case you've forgotten. Today, you were meant to learn discipline and obedience, not how to wildly assault your betters. Didn't even really display in skill with the sword in the process neither. Indeed, in general, your lessons throughout the years have never been intended to specifically help you learn combat skills. With your size and weakness, there's only so much you can do in that field. It was always about teaching you respect and discipline, which you've failed at displaying quite spectacularly today."

Will didn't want to listen to or acknowledge the words he was hearing. Perhaps he'd known all this on some level before, but to hear that he'd been destined to always be weak and useless was a hard pill to swallow. Furthermore, with his rush of adrenaline gone, he was growing horrified at what further punishments he could be facing when his father caught wind of what he'd just done. Foldar was right.

The lieutenant smiled darkly as he watched Will slowly processing his words and the consequences of his actions.

"Of course, I'm always open to an apology. I understand that as you've said, it's been a tumultuous past few weeks for you, with the mission and all. We can certainly keep this entire incident between just the two of us, if you can prove to me now that you understand the importance of respect and obedience without need for any further, outside intervention."

Will clenched his fists so hard they shook. He knew what Foldar wanted. He wanted him to kneel, perhaps take another beating, and do it all without complaint. It would be all too easy to do it too. After all, he'd been doing it for most of his life.

But something had happened during his attack just now. He didn't feel like obeying Foldar unquestioningly as he'd been doing for the past decade. It didn't feel right anymore, and he felt as if he'd just woken up from a nightmare.

The thought of his father's response to his actions alone, however, countered all of that significantly. He knew that his father loved him, but somehow he also knew that Foldar was right about who he would side with on the subject of his lessons. Indecision froze Will in place for a long second.

He felt strange, for lack of a better description. He didn't feel like himself anymore in a frightening, yet exhilarating way, and his mind was practically melting from all the confused emotions broiling within him at that moment. With every passing moment, Foldar's dark gaze grew increasingly intense along with the steadily escalating pressure in Will's chest. So, not knowing what else he could do, he finally turned and ran.

Seemingly shocked by the move, Foldar made no effort to stop him as he left the courtyard and castle entirely behind for the gray forests of the rocky mountains.

* * *

It was late afternoon by the time Halt and his new "comrades" arrived at the apparent entrance to Morgarath's castle. Or at least, that's what he was told it was. In all honesty, there wasn't a castle in sight, and the "entrance" looked more like a cave than anything else, so the Ranger was understandably suspicious about the whole thing.

Did these men suspect his true identity or purpose in joining them? It _had_ been absurdly easy to join them. Perhaps too easy?

"Alright, Holten, I'm going to give you your first and only warning right here and now." Halt snapped out of his thoughts as the leader of the gang addressed him with his chosen alias.

He was a scrawny man with shrewd eyes that twitched at odd intervals. The Ranger met his eyes with all the innocence and stupidity of a desperate thief idiotic enough to volunteer to join Morgarath's army. Internally, however, he was carefully watching the man for any signs of suspicion or betrayal. So far, at least, it seemed that Halt was selling his act well, much to his relief.

"After you pass this entrance, there will be no going back for you." The leader said. "By entering now, you are submitting yourself to the will and rule of Lord Morgarath, accepting him as your new king and commander. This is not something you can take back. Do you understand?" There was a cold look in the eyes of all the men surrounding him. This was the most serious he'd seen this bumbling, odd assortment of criminals be all day. He nodded solemnly.

"I understand, and I haven't changed my mind at all." Halt said. "I've never been so sure of something all my life." The atmosphere seemed to lighten a bit at his words.

"You'll likely come to regret those words, but since you say so, let us continue onwards then." The leader said much more cheerfully, an eye twitching with what almost seemed like manic excitement and dark glee. Halt grimaced internally, wondering what he'd just signed himself up for. Then, the scrawny man led the way into the cave-like structure and there was definitely no turning back for him now.

As they walked deeper and deeper inside, it quickly became evident to Halt that it was more like a tunnel than a cave, despite initial appearances. It was a pitch black and narrow place, leading to somewhere so far away that there wasn't even any light at the other end in sight. He was thankful that he didn't have any claustrophobia as his back scraped the ceiling when he had to bend over to continue through the dark tunnel. In all his years of experience, Halt could admit that he'd never encountered something quite like this, and he found himself also thankful for the cover of darkness for hiding his likely grim expression from the others as he found himself tense and on guard.

They continued to make their way through the tunnel for what seemed like an hour. Halt was beginning to find it rather suffocating, to the point of being almost unbearable, when a burst of light then suddenly assaulted his vision, blinding him for a second. He squinted against it and felt the men behind him pushing him onwards despite his instinctual hesitation. Then, he abruptly found himself outside. The darkness that had surrounded him for at least an hour seemed to suddenly disappear in an instant, and he could breathe again.

Blinking as his eyes adjusted to daylight once more, Halt was then faced with the view of a massive, stone castle at the side of a somber mountain that towered next to the mountain he was standing on. Once he got over his shock and finished drinking in the sight before him, he also noticed that he had somehow ended up at the wide entrance of a cave-like structure, just like the entrance he'd taken to somehow get here. Halt was uncharacteristically bewildered as he still struggled to figure out how he'd gotten there from the dark confines of the tunnel, but he had to push it to the back of his mind to try and get back into character.

"What was that?" He exclaimed, sounding both excited and fearful, though that was only partially an act. "We was just stumbling through that tunnel and then suddenly ended up here!"

"Magic," The gap-toothed man from early said behind him. "Surely you've heard the rumors about the Mountains of Rain and Night? Some of it's true. There's sorcery at work all around us now, and Morgarath has learned how to harness it for himself. That's why he calls himself the lord of this place, after all."

"You're not regretting this already, are you newbie?" Another man from behind him asked, cackling. Halt shook his head vigorously.

"Of course not!" The statement was partially true. Even if he'd changed his mind on this mission, which he hadn't, he knew that had he not accepted and gone through the tunnel earlier, these men would've killed him right then and there. After all, he now knew the location of Morgarath's lair and how to get there. Internally, he was groaning to himself as he could already imagine what a headache escaping this place will be.

"Good, because it seems like you're in for some excitement already," The leader said, frowning as he peered at the castle just a mountain over. Halt studied it as well, and indeed saw a flurry of activity. A few small figures, impossible to really make out in detail from their distance, were scurrying around, not quite frantically, but certainly with a purpose in the castle courtyard and around the castle itself. Something was clearly going on.

"C'mon, let's go." The leader said grimly. "We'll figure out what's going on whenever we finally get there. Should only take a couple of hours if we hurry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god this chapter was a lot longer and harder to write than I thought it'd be. That's why it took so long, but it was fun and I hope y'all enjoyed it! I was going to have Halt arrive and actually meet Will this chapter for first impressions, but I felt like I needed to cut it off here before this got too long. Foldar is really hard to write! I have no idea how it came across, so feedback on that would be great. All criticism and reviews are welcomed as well, as always! Next chapter will have a bit more action and excitement, and hopefully Halt and Will could meet soon ;) Online schooling has been kicking my butt, but I'm still hoping I could actually get the next chapter done by next week as well if possible. Hopefully see y'all then!


	3. An Unexpected Shock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm really excited about this chapter! A lot of set up here, but also a lot of really important events to go through. Hopefully it isn't too long this time around. This took a while since I got busy with online schooling but that's all done at this point thankfully. Thank you to all who are still reading this! It's always comforting to know there are people out there reading this thing lol. I'm also probably going to go back to the previous chapters to edit them a bit, so next update might be slightly delayed as well for me to do that.

When they finally arrived at the castle, Halt was essentially told to go sit in a corner and wait as the rest of the men joined the others rushing about the area. The Ranger should've been perfectly content with this, considering that the entire purpose of his mission had been to come and observe the castle and its inhabitants, but he was finding the whole situation rather irritating instead.

So far, the actions of Morgarath's men have been just as erratic and strange as the Kalkara incident that had bought him here in the first place, and just like that incident, he had no idea what to make of any of it. As a Ranger, he was used to knowing about things, so all this being in the dark and confused was starting to get on his nerves.

After around an hour, Halt had finally had enough. Standing up, he managed to snag one of the men rushing around as they passed by him. If he was to be honest with himself, it was a rather risky move to put himself out there like this, but after all the strange events of today, he figured he had an excuse to be a little impatient.

Fortunately, the person he'd grabbed happened to be the bearded man that had accompanied him through the mountains. Having already been somewhat familiarized with him, the man didn't seem too hostile as he was pulled to a stop.

"Excuse me, I know you're busy and all, but I just was wondering if you could explain to me what's going on here." Halt said as earnestly as he could manage. "It seems like something important is happening. Is there any way I can help with it? I've just been twiddling my thumbs in the corner for a while now."

"Don't think there's much you can help with, newbie. We're just looking for the brat." The man replied, glancing around nervously as he appeared to be mere seconds away from bolting back to whatever he was supposed to be doing.

"What brat?" Halt asked with a genuine frown. For some reason, the question caused the man to suddenly snap all his attention onto him, all nervousness and impatience gone.

"That's right, you must not know yet." He said a bit incredulously as he seemed to realize something. "It's always so easy to forget that outsiders don't know."

"Don't know what?" Halt asked, barely keeping up his lighthearted, curious tone. The man shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, I don't know if I should be the one to tell you about this. I could get in a lot of trouble if you find out about such information when you're not supposed to." Halt leaned forward.

"Well now you have to tell me! You can't just say something like that and leave a man hanging." For a blindingly hopeful moment, the bearded man looked like he was actually about to tell him, before he then firmly clammed up.

"Nope. I'm sorry my friend, no can do. I don't aspire to be brutally flogged or murdered, so you're just going to have to find out from one of the higher ups whenever they approve of you."

Halt had to keep himself from scowling. For not the first time that day, he was beginning to regret his decision to characterize himself as an excitable buffoon of a criminal. Initially, it had seemed like a good idea to act far differently from his usual personality to lower his chances of being recognized, but now he was finding it to be a rather irritating and difficult act to keep up.

"Well that's certainly a shame." He sighed. "How long do you think it'll take for one of the higher ups to approve of me then? It looks like everyone's all caught up in this big secret at the moment."

"I'm sure you'll be officially hired and allowed to join our ranks by tomorrow at the latest." The man said, glancing around nervously again. "It's nothing personal. I know this all seems confusing and I would gladly explain everything to you, but this really is one of the Black Lord's best kept secrets for a reason." Halt couldn't help, but raise an eyebrow at this.

"Really? Well, I can't wait to find out more about it then." He said dryly. The man was too distracted to notice.

"Indeed. Now if you'll excuse me, I really need to be going." And then he was off, and Halt was effectively left to go back to sitting in a corner.

The Ranger sighed and decided to make himself comfortable on one of the benches at the perimeter of Morgarath's castle courtyard. He suspected that he had a long, _boring_ afternoon ahead of him. More significantly, however, his curiosity was extremely peaked now as he realized he was already at the edge of a big breakthrough for his mission.

 _The Black Lord's best kept secret…_ What could that possibly be? Halt had already deduced that the bearded man he'd just interrogated was a chatterbox and a big gossiper, so for Morgarath to instill so much fear into even a man like that all to keep this secret must mean that this was something big.

He twitched as a group of Wargals scrambled right past him towards the gray forests beyond the castle. That was certainly also something that would take some getting used to. Back in Araluen, Wargals were feared creatures, but here they seemed to be just another group inhabiting this strange castle of Morgarath's, a normal part of daily life. The Ranger resisted the urge to groan as he wondered once more what he'd gotten himself into with this mission.

With nothing better to do, Halt also began to think over all the information he'd gathered since he first came to these mountains.

The strange "cave-tunnel incident", as he'd mentally dubbed it, was something completely out of his vast range of knowledge. The whole experience had been unsettling and completely unexplainable, initially almost shocking enough for him to break character, though that had been a disaster he'd somehow managed to avoid.

Perhaps it had been magic? Although he usually didn't believe in the supernatural, the Mountains of Rain and Night had always been an exception to that, as there've been many reliable past accounts that seemed to indicate that there was truly something off about this place. Morgarath had evidently discovered the Wargals and Kalkaras here after all. Still, to encounter something like this, and so early into his mission, was seriously throwing him for a loop. Ultimately, however, he knew that he could do nothing more than file this information away to report later, as there was no way he could think of any explanations for it at the moment and he needed to focus on keeping up his act in order to keep himself alive. He was just going to have to come to terms with what happened as quickly as possible and move on with the mission.

Halt also reflected on the bearded man's words. When the Ranger had first asked him what was going on, he'd said that the Wargals and people of the castle were all currently busy "looking for the brat". A seed of suspicion began to sprout in the Ranger's mind as he considered this.

The Kalkara incident had included rumors about an unidentified boy stopping the Kalkaras from murdering Lord Lorriac. Could this boy also be the "brat" everyone here was going into a frenzy over? That would be awfully convenient for the Ranger, considering that one of the objectives of his mission was to gather information on the rumored boy and the Kalkara incident as a whole, though that still left the question of how and why this boy was causing so much chaos in both Araluen and this castle. And what could all this have to do with Morgarath's so-called "best kept secret"? Halt sighed heavily with frustration and resignation alike.

 _Patience._ He had a gut feeling that he'd get to the bottom of this whole mess soon enough.

* * *

The forest around the castle had always been Will's favorite place to go to whenever he wanted a break from everything back home. It was gray, lifeless, and dangerous, but it was also the only place Will felt like he could truly be alone and consequently, be himself. Having grown up exploring these woods, he knew them better than perhaps anybody else, even the other inhabitants of the castle, who mostly feared and avoided the place. It was for this reason that he knew exactly where to go for refuge when he ran.

Though he'd originally bolted from the castle with nothing but a turmoil of emotions and no destination in mind, Will was now heading down into the valley of the mountains, toward a small clearing he'd discovered when he was just eight years old. It was essentially his secret childhood playground, which was perhaps why he'd instinctively chosen to head there. He'd thought that maybe, just maybe, the worst of the memories still ravaging his mind could be calmed there. It was comfortable and familiar, a place of good memories that could perhaps counteract the terrible ones ripping into his mind right now.

_Focus. Keep yourself together. You're almost there._

As he continued descending the mountain of his home, carefully avoiding leaving too many tracks, Will kept a wary watch on the sun.

Father might really murder him if he tried to stay out here overnight (and that's if the creatures that inhabited these woods didn't get to him first), so he knew that he had to use his time wisely and make it back home by sunset. Nearing his destination now, Will estimated that he had about six hours of daylight left before then. Good. He only needed two hours to get back home, leaving him four solid hours of solitude that he desperately needed.

When his little clearing finally came into view, Will let out a relieved sigh as the weight of his earlier confrontation with Foldar was finally, slightly lifted. Walking through the woods for hours, focusing on hiding and avoiding leaving any tracks so that he couldn't be followed, had helped him calm down a little, but finally getting here made him feel happier than he had in weeks.

Unwelcome memories were still threatening the edges of his mind, however, so he quickly headed towards a good-sized tree hollow at the edge of the clearing and ducked his way inside. He curled up against the familiar shape of the hollowed tree trunk and closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of the forest deeply and feeling the rough wood pressing against his cheek. The melody of rustling leaves and distant birds was like a balm for his mind.

Now, he could finally think.

Will was uncomfortably aware of the fact that his situation was not looking good. He'd _never_ defied Foldar like that before, and for good reason. He was his father's right hand man, and Father seemed to agree with him on most subjects, including that of his lessons and Foldar's methods for teaching them. It was therefore safe to assume that Father would also be more than a little livid when word of Will's actions today got back to him. Will knew that to be a fact, as firmly as he knew that the skies are blue and mountains are gray.

He had been seven when he'd tried to complain to Father about Foldar's teaching style for the first and final time. He'd known better than to try again.

With that in mind, he was dreading Father's reaction to his actions today. He knew all too well that attacking Foldar, yelling at him, and then ditching his lessons by running off into the woods would be only a short step down from directly disobeying his father himself in his father's eyes. At that thought, he curled up into a tighter ball, gripping his clothes tightly in an attempt to physically hold himself together.

So much for making himself feel better here.

For perhaps an hour, Will wasted his precious alone time chasing terrible thoughts and speculations around in his mind. His imagination went wild conjuring up what kinds of punishment Father could inflict upon him. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore and tried to shut all thoughts out completely. He'd been trembling for a while by that point, the fear almost overwhelming him.

He eventually was forced to conclude that this wasn't doing him any good. He had to get himself together. He needed a distraction. And he knew just the thing that could help him with that. It was one of the main things that he'd trekked all the way here for after all.

Cautiously crouching up in the tree hollow, Will peeked outside to ensure that no one was around. When he was certain that there wasn't another soul in the area, he reached into the hollow for a certain, familiar weapon.

If he were ever to be caught with this, he'd be facing much more than just punishments. In fact, he couldn't even fathom the consequences of being caught, didn't want to either. He theorized that Father might actually literally go blind with rage if he found about about this. With his current predicament, it was perhaps unwise to do this, but this has always been one of the few things he thought he was good at. On top of that, this was also one of the few things that always calmed him down without fail. He _needed_ this right now.

So Will crawled out of the tree hollow with two things in his hands: a little bow and a small quiver of arrows. The equipment was worn down from years of use, but it was also evidently well cared for and reasonably functional. There were even a few flimsy arrows he'd constructed from whatever material he could scrap together mixed into the quiver. They weren't particularly well made, but they worked well enough and he was proud enough of them that he'd decided to hold onto them.

After another quick scan of the area, Will tightened his grip on his little bow and eyed the trees he usually used for target practice. Slinging the quiver of arrows over his shoulders, in one smooth motion, he then nocked an arrow and drew the bowstring back. He focused on a small branch at the side of a tree, choosing it as his target, before letting an arrow fly.

There was a satisfying _thwack_ as his arrow found its mark and a shaky, but genuine smile made its way to his lips.

Will continued picking and shooting at various targets, over and over again, sometimes even trying to shoot multiple arrow in quick succession. Every few shots, he had to stop to find and retrieve his arrows, and his accuracy wasn't perfect, but it was for this very reason that he was able to give this monotonous and purposeless task all his focus. All his worries temporarily faded to the back to the back of his mind as he lost himself in his practice with his little bow and arrows.

* * *

No one dares to wander around the Mountains of Rain and Night after the moon rises, and Will doesn't dare to actually not return home for the night. Because of this, he eventually had to reluctantly put his bow and arrows back into their hiding place, before steeling himself for his return home.

Getting to his secret clearing had taken three hours since he'd taken care to cover his tracks and travel through streams to ensure that he wouldn't be easily followed. He knew that he could be less cautious on his way back, however, as it was unlikely anybody would trace his footsteps back to his secret hiding place. So, he had no qualms about rushing up the mountains like a madman as the sun quickly sank towards the horizon, its red rays glaring at him judgmentally as he raced against its descent.

Even with all his rushing, it was sunset by the time Will finally got back. A sense of deja vu struck him as he stood before the grand entrance of the castle he called home. It wasn't feeling particularly homely at the moment. Looking up at it now, it loomed over him more like a prison, a disappointing shadow cast heavily over him. The entire scene was eerily similar to his return home after his mission just the day before. And just like before, he forged on ahead, his anticipation for what was to come almost suffocating him.

Anticipation gave way into horror when he entered the courtyard and immediately saw a large group of Wargals, castle guards, and his father's hired mercenaries all gathered there. Foldar was in the middle of the group, yelling and spitting insults at them all when his dark eyes quickly caught sight of him upon his arrival.

Will felt his heart freeze, stiffening along with the rest of his body. There was a long pause in the courtyard and one by one, all the people gathered there turned back to stare at him.

"Well, men, it looks like we'll all be spared from Lord Morgarath's rage tonight after all. It would appear that our beloved heir has decided to finally return to us." Foldar's words were dripping with venom, and his face was twisted in a quiet, but controlled rage as he finally broke the silence. "Welcome home _again_ , Will." Will could say nothing in response.

He should've expected this. After all, he'd been gone all day after his little outburst during his lesson. Of course Foldar would eventually send out people to look for him and drag him back. But usually, nobody cared about or bothered him whenever he slinks off into the forbidding forests of the mountains, so he hadn't considered this possibility while he'd been out. Now, he was paying dearly for that mistake, as he found around a hundred eyes of the various inhabitants of the castle all locked onto him.

"Nothing to say?" Foldar demanded after another long moment of silence. "Well that's a shame. Hopefully you'll have more to say to your father in just a moment. He certainly won't be impressed by your little stunts today." Taking the cue, a couple castle guards hurried forward and surrounded him. He knew well enough that the move was meant to keep him from running off again, but didn't bother resisting it.

"I lost track of time…" He mumbled emptily, too shocked think of anything else to say. "Sorry."

"Oh you will be." Foldar said, walking forward to meet him as the castle guards urged him toward the castle. The lieutenant's eyes were darker than ever in the fading evening light, and Will felt his heart clawing its way up his throat. "I _promise_ , you will be." And with that, he was guided- dragged- back towards the castle.

As he went, he looked around at all the people that had likely spent the afternoon looking for him, a heavy guilt in his chest as he realized how many individuals had wasted their time over him. There was a burning sensation in his eyes as he felt the weight of being a truly terrible, worthless heir. He wondered for the millionth time why he'd been chosen for such a role in the first place.

_Stupid. Selfish. Worthless._

The least he could do was meet the eyes of the crowd that now parted its way for him. Most eyes were downcast, as usual, but as he got to the end of the crowd, he unexpectedly caught the gaze of an unfamiliar man. Despite his horror and guilt over his current predicament, a shell shocked, numb part of himself still noted that he didn't recognize him and he frowned.

Not recognizing someone was unusual for Will, for he generally knew the faces of most of the people in the castle due to his position. Perhaps it was the chaos of his scrambled his mind that brought this fact briefly to the forefront of his mind, but Will couldn't help but distantly think: _He must be new here._

* * *

Halt felt like his mind had just been shredded and clumsily glued back together by the time he finally got to lay his head down that night. There was just so much to process, so much he needed to record, but he didn't dare to write anything down anywhere just yet. He was still new here, and he knew he was already being watched carefully by the various leaders here, who seemed to be significantly more intelligent than their men.

Right before the castle had closed down for the night, he'd been brought before a few lieutenants and commanders who'd conveniently gathered for a meeting following the madness of the afternoon. Rather than immediately accepting him like the men that had brought him here had, these leaders had informed him that he'd be given a few days of trial to prove himself. The entire group had been casual enough about the whole thing, assuring him that it was just standard procedure here, further indicating how perceptive and dangerous they were, but Halt was a Ranger. He knew that especially with the timing of his arrival so close to the Kalkara incident, they were almost definitely already suspecting him to be a spy of some sort, if not a Ranger as he truly was.

Why they didn't straight up throw him into the dungeons and torture him for his true intentions was anybody's guess, but he suspected that they were hoping he'd eventually slip up and maybe even give up some useful information in the process. In fact, the Ranger had been counting on this very tempting line of thinking for the success of the mission, a risk that had thankfully paid off and allowed him to avoid a messy, early end this whole thing via an attempt to drag him to the dungeons.

Halt wasn't considered one of the best Rangers in the Corps for nothing, so he was reasonably confident that he'd be able to evade being discovered despite the suspicion of the higher ups here, but that meant taking some precautions. So for the time being, he'd have to keep up his act, not ask too many questions, and avoid writing down any of the information he'd gathered, as anything he wrote would surely be looked through and scrutinized. Even if heavily coded, the mere act of writing would only intensify the suspicion already on him. The risk just wasn't worth it.

That consequently left him with no other option than to desperately keep track of and organize all of his insane discoveries from the day completely mentally, however.

So, Halt closed his eyes and struggled to ignore the snoring of twenty other men around him and the discomfort of the hard spot on the floor he'd been given to sleep on. Then, he began thinking over all the information he'd learned so far. Or at least that was what he'd meant to do, but he ended up mostly thinking about the kid. The scrawny, terrified boy Foldar had called "Will", the one who'd been referred to as the heir of this castle and the _son_ of Morgarath.

His mind was still reeling from the revelation and he couldn't quite process it. Since when did Morgarath have an _heir_? Let alone one that seemingly hadn't been driven to insanity? And how had he hidden such a major thing from all Araluen intelligence for so many years? Those massive, glaring mysteries didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the enormity of this discovery. For one, the boy himself was also a confusing puzzle.

To begin with, even now, as Halt tries to envision Morgarath being a parent, or anybody's partner for him to produce children with in the first place, the image just wouldn't form. But if he had to describe what a child being raised by Morgarath would likely be like, he could only imagine the kid being either just as cruel and insane as his father or completely broken by him.

Will didn't seem to fit either of those categories, however. The Ranger could tell this by the way he walked as he'd been forced into the castle, and by the implications of his part in the Kalkara Incident, which was yet another headache in itself.

Halt had little doubt that the boy was the same, rumored teenager from the incident that had brought him here in the first place. And with that revelation, the Ranger had immediately initially theorized that the boy could've been trying to assert his authority over the Kalkara's that fateful evening, a motivation befitting the cruel, controlling attitude he'd potentially expect from a child of Morgarath. The results of Will's orders to the beasts directly contradicted the obvious assassination mission he'd been supposedly sent on, however, which had some puzzling implications.

The sparing of Lord Lorraic seemed to indicate that the kid had a sense of compassion which would've for some reason caused him to stop the Kalkaras from finishing the man off. It was the natural, inevitable conclusion to the incident based on all he knew now. By itself, this was already strange, but what he really couldn't wrap his mind around was how this was supposed to be the actions of someone who'd been raised as Morgarath's heir.

On top of all that, the kid had been also treated like a _prisoner_ when he'd burst into the courtyard earlier that evening, which was also maddeningly strange. For someone as important and high ranking as the heir to the lord of this very castle, the boy had appeared extremely terrified and small during his confrontation with Foldar.

Halt had no trouble believing that Morgarath wouldn't care enough about a child- even his own- to actively prevent the boy from being abused by others, but Will was still supposed to be his heir. Why would Morgarath allow his subjects and his own second-in-command to push around and terrify the very person they were theoretically supposed to one day serve and be ruled by?

The entire situation was a hot mess, and an unsettling web of mysteries that even Halt wasn't very keen on untangling. Something was off here, and he couldn't help but feel like Morgarath was even more sick than he could've ever imagined. He'd always known the ex-baron to be evil, but this situation, confusing as it was, certainly could only lead to dark, disturbing conclusions.

Halt sighed. Perhaps a good night's sleep would help him better process the tidal wave of insane revelations from today. He certainly wasn't getting anywhere fast with his current jumbled thoughts.

So he closed his eyes and tried to let his thoughts and speculations fade away to the back of his mind. Tried being the operative word there, because despite his best efforts, there was a certain single image and thought that refused to leave him alone, even as he drifted into the arms of slumber.

Practically imprinted in the back of his eyelids was the image of a small, terrified boy with a mop of brown hair and wide eyes that had briefly met his own that evening. He barely knew anything about the kid, couldn't tell if he was a good person or not, or if he was even truly sane at all considering his "parent". If anything, Will's entire existence and everything Halt knew so far about him made him nothing more than a walking mystery.

Still, Ranger couldn't help but think: _Poor kid._

* * *

The shackles around his wrists and ankles hurt. They were put on too tightly, purposefully so. According to Foldar, they were hoping that they were going to leave a mark, something for him to remember this lesson by.

The chill of the stone floor and walls surrounding Will made the cold he'd experienced the night before by his windowsill feel like a nice bask in the sun by comparison. Will watched the moon rise into the night sky through the barred windows of the castle's deepest dungeons. He had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to sleep much tonight with the cold, the pain from the shackles, his awkward position attached to the wall, and the thoughts still lingering in his mind.

Father hadn't even bothered giving him an audience before sentencing him to an indefinite stay in the dungeons of his own home. That more than anything was what kept him up now. While for now this was one of the less violent consequences of major offenses he'd experienced in the past few years, it was also somehow the most extreme. Never has he felt more fearful and isolated as he did now. Father likely wasn't able to even bear the sight of him at the moment, which was why he'd been sent down here so abruptly. Because of this, Will also didn't know for sure when he would be getting out of here. On top of that, the residents of the castle didn't name this particular area of the dungeons "the Desolation" for nothing.

The dead silence surrounding him was deafening and pressed down on him heavily, so much so that it was almost hard to breathe through it. Even an overly loud breath echoed around the walls of these chambers and the single guard at the end of the corridor of the dungeons was completely out of Will's sight, meaning for all intents and purposes, he truly was completely locked away from the rest of the world.

With every passing hour of the night, the cold of his prison seemed to increase and with it, his trembling intensified steadily as well. He wondered distantly if he could die of hypothermia down here tonight, but he knew deep down that it wouldn't happen. That's not what the Desolation was designed for.

It was meant to let prisoners feel the discomfort and pain of the cold during nighttime, but not be harsh enough to truly kill them. It was meant to intensify and prolong one's suffering. He would know, for he's witnessed it do its job ever since its completion when he was child. He'd had every careful detail behind its design explained to him by the resident architects, who'd created it themselves, for his own future reference when he would one day supposedly have to use it on his enemies.

He had a feeling that his stay here was supposed to toughen him up somehow, as well as make him dearly regret all of his recent actions. While the latter was certainly happening, he felt that knowing how awful staying in the Desolation was now will only guarantee that he wouldn't ever be able to bring himself to sentence someone else to stay down here. This could only mean more trouble for him in the future, but he couldn't bring himself to particularly care about that at the moment.

The night crawled on and the cold kept biting into his numbing flesh. The dark bruises just underneath the shackles around his wrists and ankles ached. Staring at the shackles, Will struggled to manage his fears for what was going to come next. A stay in the Desolation was never just a few days sitting around in these frighteningly silent, isolated chambers. Something else was going to happen, another layer to his punishment, and with the magnitude of his misdeeds, he wasn't sure if he was going to come out of it unchanged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm extremely unsure on this chapter's transitions between scenes, the pacing, and this chapter as a whole in general… I almost feel like Halt's lengthy internal monologues/reflections are too repetitive, but I didn't know how else I could approach it. As always any feedback is greatly appreciated! Next chapter will have a bit more progression hopefully, and will also hopefully come out a lot faster lol. Also more interactions between Halt and Will hopefully, they barely got to interact here unfortunately.


End file.
